Coconut Cookie Bites

I had my holistic nutrition class over the other Sunday to watch a video, ("The Future of Food" - if you'd like a depressing primer on how food is grown, add this one to your "to rent" list...), and I wanted to make an easy sweet treat to go along with the obligatory salsa, black bean dip, whole grain bread, etc. I love coconut, and since it's maybe, finally, barely starting to feel like summer here, little cookies with this tasty tropical fruit felt like just the thing. They're light, chewy, and highly addictive. Since I used Rapadura sugar instead of the white stuff, they came out a lovely brown - a nice background for the flecks of white coconut...


Coconut Cookie Bites

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Rapadura sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups flaked, unsweetened coconut


- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

- In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and Rapadura sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut.

- Using your hands scoop out tablespoon-sized chunks of batter. Roll each one around in your palms to form smooth balls and place on a greased cookie sheet about one inch apart, (they don't expand very much).

- These bake very quickly, so to keep their chewy texture, bake for 5 minutes and check on them - they should just barely be golden on the bottom, and still quite pale on top. In most ovens, this will not exceed ten minutes.

- Cool on wire racks. Yields about 3 dozen.

butter and the sugars

fluffy batter goodness

rolled and ready

I served these with an herbal cooler, (raspberry hibiscus tea mixed with apple juice and sliced oranges and lemons), and they were a big hit...